Hi,
I'm quite new on OSM, but I have already added a whole lot of roads and paths near my city. I also have updated/changed already drawn roads. The only thing that bothers me is the completely outdated satellite data. Isn't it possible to use more updated data, like from Google Maps, which isn't that up to date too, but a bit more than the Microsoft data?

No, absolutely not. Google is completely off limits (this means their maps, their satellite imagery, and the street view).

The only imagery we can use is the Bing or Yahoo imagery (not the bing street view though, just the overhead view). For some contries there is also imagery that has been released but it varies from place to place. You can check the wiki page for whatever countries you are interested in to see if there is a local source available.

no, unfortunatley you are not allowed to use google maps or other sources for your mapping.
We need to use sources that are compatible with the open source license OSM uses, so we can create a truly 'free' map. (That is, not just one that can be used free of charge, but one that is not bound by any ones ownership rights.)

Google owns its map data and satellite images, so we are not allowed to use it.

By the way, welcome to the project. :) I didn't mean to scare you with the previous post, it is just that Google have made it very clear we can't use their stuff so I wanted to answer your question.

If you enjoy doing tracing work of satellite imagery, you should also check out the HOT team (Humanitarian Openstreetmap Team). The HOT team tries to map areas that are affected by war, natural disasters, or other places where good maps would help the humanitarian response in the region.

you see: the OSM users are very passionate about this. But don't let that scare you off. Thanks for making an effort to improve the map anyhow. Just stick to legal sources or, even better, do your own mapping with your GPS outside.

Just to back up previous posts and to explain. Open Street Map is just that, it is about making a OPen Source map that all can use, based on data that has been defined as Open Source by its contributors ( ie OSM editors such as yourself ).

Contributors ( OSM editors ) can use their own data ( GPS Traces, personal surveys of areas etc ) and use data that other suppliers have let us, including Yahoo Imagery and Bing.

The fact that the data starts as open source, means that the map remains open source for all users ( and you sign a license agreement with the website to confirm that you give your data as that ). No one wants to compromise OSM with data that even might belong to someone else ( Google etc ), explaining why the community gets very nervous when ( usually ) a new user suggests they have ( helpfully ) added data from a non open source.

Please keep up the good work and welcome to OSM, and keep us updated on your edits.
bri

Ha, another user from near my region. We don't need newer images, our map is evolving quickly enough, even without up-to-date images. When I started (more than 1 year ago), we didn't have images and my own street wasn't on the map. Now I have mapped almost my complete village, including most houses with their housenumber. http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=50.93959&lon=3.06352&zoom=17&layers=M

I don't know if Brugge also has a walking-node network, but lately I've occupied myself with adding walking nodes in De Westhoek. I know that the Belgian shore has a network, but I don't know about Brugge. Adding walking nodes is quite fun since it leads you to good walking paths and there is no other online map that shows the walking nodes yet. http://openwandelkaart.nl/?zoom=13&lat=50.78012&lon=2.76743&layers=000BFFFTFF

I'm quite new as well and I know your feeling -There is so much good aerial data out there on the web and we can't use it! -it sucks!
I'm constantly on the hunt for good, free, aerial data over swedens less populated areas...